U-M residency rule has local student in a bind

ANN ARBOR — AnMaree Williams got nearly perfect grades this fall in her first semester at the University of Michigan.

After moving from the Virgin Islands to live with her aunt in Michigan and attend Kalamazoo Central High School, AnMaree Williams, 19, now faces out-of-state tuition at the University of Michigan and is uncertain whether she will return next semester. The university considers her an out-of-state resident because her parents do not live in Michigan.But the 19-year-old Kalamazoo Central graduate will not get credit for her hard work or return to the university next semester unless she can scrounge together more than $25,000 to cover her tuition bill.

Williams, who has lived in Michigan since her freshman year of high school, said that because her parents do not live in Michigan — her mother lives in the Virgin Islands, her father in Puerto Rico — the university does not consider her a Michigan resident, meaning she must pay out-of-state tuition.

“I thought it was a simple mistake and that things could be fixed,” she said. “I didn’t know that the guidelines were so outrageous.”

Seeking a better education, Williams left her parents and home in the Caribbean in 2004. She moved in with an aunt in Kalamazoo, attended Kalamazoo Central for four years, graduated and was accepted by the University of Michigan.

She voted in Kalamazoo for the first time. She got her first job, her first apartment, her first car and her first driver’s license in Kalamazoo. She considers Kalamazoo and the state of Michigan her home.

The University of Michigan does not.

Kelly Cunningham, a university spokeswoman, said the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prohibits the school from talking about matters of individual students and would not comment on Williams’ status.

The university’s residency requirements state that a student under 24 years old is considered a non-resident if the student’s parents live outside of Michigan.

In-state tuition for a first-year student at U of M is $5,735 per semester. Out-of-state tuition is $17,374.

Williams, who is in the College of Art and Design, said she owes $11,639 to cover the balance of her first semester and an additional $13,647 if she wants to return. The Kalamazoo Promise, for which Williams qualified, covers 65 percent of the cost of in-state tuition.

“I built a life in Kalamazoo. ... It was a really difficult experience for me,” Williams said. “Now being told that that’s not my home at all, it’s pretty frustrating. I feel like I’m being punished for my parents not being there.”

Other state universities, including Western Michigan University and Michigan State University, have similar residency requirements. The University of Michigan’s residency requirements were approved by the university’s publicly elected Board of Regents, Cunningham said.

“Overall the goal of the residency criteria is to ensure that the students receiving the benefits are actual Michigan residents,” she said.

The university notified Williams in August, before she started college classes, that she was considered an out-of-state student and would be charged more than three times as much tuition.

Williams thought it was a simple mistake and filed an appeal. She lost the appeal, filed another one and lost. Now the family has hired an attorney but is still seeking a solution.

“They don’t care about the kids. It’s all about money” said Williams’ mother, Debra Williams. “How do you just rip a kid out of their desk and their dorm and just crush their heart?”

Debra Williams said that as her daughter prepared to graduate, no one at Kalamazoo Central or the university mentioned the residency requirement. The semester-long battle with the university and unfavorable decisions has left the family reaching out to U of M alumni and families and businesses in Kalamazoo for help.

Having missed deadlines for financial aid and student loans, the family, however, does not know what they will do.

Williams said she has considered taking courses at nearby Washtenaw Community College until the matter is sorted out.

“I have no idea where I am going to end up,” Williams said. “It puts a lot of stress on me, and it has taken a lot of fight out of me.”